St. Landry democrat., 1887-09-24


Tabernacle-Some Pertinent Thoughts
Suggested by the Career of Joseph.
BROOKLYN, September 1S.-After being
closed for some weeks for improve
ments and engagements the Brooklyn
Tabernacle was opened to-day. The
same overwhelming throngs were in at
tendance as before. The congregation
sang with great effect the hymn:
Before Jehovah's awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred Joy;
Know that the Lord is God alone,
He can create and He destroy.
After explaining appropriate passages
of Scripture, DR.. Talmage took his text
from Genesis XII, Al: "And Pharaoh
said unto Joseph, See I have set thee
over all the land of Egypt" The subject
of the sermon was "The Prime Minister"
DR.. Talmage said:
You cannot keep good man down.
God has decreed for him a certain eleva-
ton to which he must attain. He will
bring him through, though it cost Him
thousand worlds There are men con-
stantly in trouble lest they shall not be
appreciated. Every man comes in the
end to be valued at just what he is worth.
How often you see men turn out all
their forces to crush one man or set of
men! How do they succeed? No better
than did the government that tried to
crush Joseph, Scripture character upon
which we speak to-day. 1t would be an
insult to suppose that you were not all
familiar with the life of Joseph; how
bis Jealous brothers threw him into the
pit, but, seeing a caravan of Arabian
merchants moving along on their camels
with spices and gums that loaded the
air with aroma, sold their brother to
these merchants, who carried him down
into Egypt; how Joseph was sold to
Potiphar, man of influence and office;
how by his integrity he raised himself to
high position in the realm, until under
the false charge of vile wretch he was
hurled into the penitentiary; how in
prison he commanded respect and conf
dence; how by the Interpretation of
Pharaoh's dream he was freed and
became the chief man in government.
the Bismarck of the nation; how
in time of famine Joseph had the
control of q storehouse which he had
filed during the seven years of plenty;
how when his brothers who had thrown
him into the pit and sold him into cap
tivity applied for corn he sent them home
with their beasts borne down under the
heft of the corn sacks; how the sin
against their brother which had so long
been hidden came out at last and was re-
turned by that brothers forgiveness and
kindness, an illustrious triumph Of Chris
tian principle.
Learn from this story in the first place
that the world is compelled to honor
Christian character. Potiphar was only
a man of the world, yet Joseph rose in
his estimation until all the affairs of that
great house were committed to his
charge. From this servant no honors or
condolences were withheld. When Joseph
was in prison he soon won the heart of
the keeper, and, though placed there for
being a scoundrel, he soon convinced
the jailer that he was an innocent and
Trustworthy man; and, released from
close confinement, he became a general
superintendent of prison affairs. Wher-
ever Joseph was placed, whether SER
want in the house of Potiphar or pris-
oner in the penitentiary he became the
first man everywhere, and is an illustra-
ton of the truth I lay down that the
world is compelled to honor Christian
character.
There are those who affect to despise
a religious life. They speak of it as a
system of phlebotomy by which man is
bled of all his courage and nobility.
They say he has demeaned himself.
They pretend to have no more conf
dence in him since his conversion than
before his conversion. But all that is
hypocrisy. 1t is impossible for any man
not to admire and confide in Christian
who shows that he has really become
child of God and is what he processes to
be. You cannot despise son or a
daughter of the Lord God Almighty.
Of course half and half religi-
GUS character wins no approba-
ton. Redwald, the king of the
Saxons, after Christian baptism had two
affairs, one for the worship of God and
the other for the sacrifice of devils. You
may have contempt for such men, for
mere pretension of religion, but when
you behold the excelleney of Jesus Christ
come out in the life of one of his disci-
pies, all that there is good and noble in
your soul rises up into admiration.
Though that Christian be as far beneath
you in estate as the Egyptian slave of
whom we are discussing, by an irrevoca-
BILE law of our nature Potiphar and Pha-
Iaoh will always esteem Joseph. Chry-
sostom, when threatened with death by
Eudoxia, the empress, sent word to her
saying: $50 tell her that fear nothing
but sin" Such nobility Of character
will always be applauded. There was
something in Agrippa and Felix which
demanded their respect for Paul, the
rebel against government. I doubt
not they would willingly have
yielded their Office and dignity for the
thousandth part of that true heroism
which beamed in the eye and beat in the
heart of the uncomfortable apostle. The
infidel and wording are compelled to
honor in their hearts, though they may
not eulogize with their lips, a Christian
firm in persecution, cheerful in poverty,
trustful in losses, triumphant in death.
find Christian men in all professions and
occupations, and I find them respected,
and honored, and successful. John
Frederick Oberlin alternating ignor-
ance and distress, John Howard
passing from dungeon to lazaretto with
healing for the body and the soul, Eliza
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